THOUSANDS WALK ‘OUT OF HELL.’

SITUATION IN LAST SYRIAN VILLAGE HELD BY ISIL DESCRIBED AS THOUSANDS FLEE

As U.s.-backed Syrian forces advance on Baghouz, the last village held by the Islamic State (ISIL), an exodus of thousands is fleeing the other way.

Photographs show lines of more than 1,000 escapees, many of them women and children, either waiting to be patted down at checkpoints, or packed into a convoy of trucks evacuating people.

One woman described the evacuation as walking “out of hell” to Washington Post. Several added that they had given up unpacking their luggage. “We’re just moving again and again,” a Syrian woman said.

The latest wave of evacuations brings the final defeat of ISIL by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces one step closer — a milestone in the devastating four-year campaign to defeat the group’s so-called “caliphate” that once covered a vast territory straddling both Syria and Iraq. Hundreds of people over the past two days streamed out of Baghouz, the last village held by ISIL, under stepped-up assault the past four days by U.s.-backed forces. The latest wave of evacuations brings the final defeat of ISIL by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces one step closer — a milestone in the devastating fouryear campaign to defeat the group’s so-called “caliphate” that once covered a vast territory straddling both Syria and Iraq.

Dorothee Maquere, the wife of a prominent French militant who joined ISIL and was killed in a mor- tar strike over the weekend, said the situation inside Baghouz was a “horror film,” saying there is a “massacre” inside, with constant shooting. People had to lay flat to avoid the crossfire, she said, adding that there were “no more homes, we live underground in tunnels and tents.” She said her seven-year-old daughter was killed and her other daughter wounded by an explosion two weeks ago. Two other sons were killed earlier in a mortar attack and Syrian government fire.

Tuesday’s exodus came three days after U.s.-backed forces resumed their push on ISIL militants holed up in Baghouz. The assault had been slowed the previous week to allow thousands of civilians, including ISIL family members, to be evacuated from the tiny pocket of territory. As many as 10,000 people who had been squeezed into the eroding patch of land, are estimated to have streamed out — an enormous number that stunned the SDF.

Asked about the situation inside Baghouz, a Russian woman who came out with her three children responded in broken Arabic: “Fear.” She said her husband had died earlier. Earlier on Tuesday, SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali tweeted that about 3,000 people came out of Baghouz on Monday.

Since Feb. 20, more than 10,000 people have left the ISIL pocket. They are shipping to a camp for displaced persons in the north.

It was unclear how many ISIL militants and civilians remain inside, but the number is now likely in the hundreds.

WE’RE JUST MOVING AGAIN AND AGAIN.

BULENT KILIC / AFP / GETTY IMAGES A fully veiled woman carries her injured child as she walks to members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) after leaving the Islamic State group’s last holdout of Baghouz in Syria on Monday.

BULENT KILIC / AFP / GETTY IMAGES Civilians evacuated from ISIL’S embattled holdout of Baghouz wait at a screening area held by the U.s.-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces on Tuesday.

BULENT KILIC / AFP / GETTY IMAGES A man suspected of belonging to ISIL walks past members of the Kurdish-led SDF just after leaving ISIL’S last holdout of Baghouz on Monday.

BULENT KILIC / AFP / GETTY IMAGES An injured man and a woman wait on the back of a truck to be searched by members of the SDF just after leaving Baghouz on Monday.

DELIL SOULEIMAN / AFP / GETTY IMAGES Smoke and fire billow after shelling on the Islamic State group’s last holdout of Baghouz, in the eastern Syrian Deir Ezzor province on Sunday.

BULENT KILIC / AFP / GETTY IMAGES Women and children who fled ISIL’S last holdout of Baghouz ride in the back of a truck in an area controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces on Monday.